The ouster of Trump-picked prosecutor Lindsey Halligan capped a months-long battle between the Justice Department and a Virginia district court, but the DOJ isn't backing down from its "war" against judges.
Why it matters: The Eastern District of Virginia emerged as a testing ground for whether the Trump administration could simply ignore court rulings it doesn't like. Federal judges — including President Trump's appointees — answered with a resounding no.
- Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has framed the friction with "rogue activist judges" as a "war."
- But judges aren't "rogue," says Liam O'Grady, a retired George W. Bush-appointed judge in the district. "They're not out there trying to support their own political philosophies. They're trying to do their job."
Catch me up: Halligan departed nearly two months after U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie ruled her appointment unconstitutional and after judges publicly questioned her authority in blistering orders.
- The ruling torpedoed indictments against ex-FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
- While the government appealed the ruling, it never sought a stay. Yet Halligan kept using the title, and judges repeatedly struck "United States Attorney" from her filings and questioned her authority.
- The refusal to back down, says Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Harold Krent, "is an insult to judges, and for no reason."
- "They're going to lose other cases simply because they're not taking the time to show respect and follow the rules of the game," Krent says.
Friction point: Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge David Novak ordered the DOJ to explain Halligan's defiance.
- Halligan's response, co-signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Blanche, accused the court of trying to "cudgel the Executive Branch into conforming its legal position" in "a gross abuse of power."
- Novak's rebuke was scathing: End "this charade" of Halligan "masquerading as" U.S. attorney in "direct defiance of binding court orders."
- The DOJ's "vitriol," he wrote, was "more appropriate for a cable news talk show."
Between the lines: Novak's rebuke, O'Grady says, made clear that "every judge in every district has an obligation to make sure that the lawyers who appear before them are qualified to be there."
- The Eastern District has long handled cases of national significance.
- The government had other ways to push back on Novak's order, writes Benjamin Wittes, Lawfare's editor-in-chief and a Brookings Institution senior fellow. "One of which is not a temper tantrum."
The power play: With Halligan still claiming the title, Chief Judge M. Hannah Lauck posted a vacancy — asserting the court's authority to appoint an interim U.S. attorney itself. Halligan's departure was announced the same day.
- Blanche signaled the fight will continue. Responding to a New York Times report that Trump would likely fire any court-appointed replacement, Blanche posted on X: "It's not likely, it's guaranteed that the President gets to pick his U.S. attorneys."
The other side: White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Axios in a statement the "American people should be deeply concerned about the rampant increase in judicial activism from radical, left-wing judges," even though the sharpest rebuke came from a Trump appointee.
The backstory: Trump endorsed Halligan in a Truth Social post urging Bondi to prosecute Comey and James. Both were swiftly indicted, but a magistrate judge found "profound investigative missteps" in the Comey case.
- Ultimately, Halligan's defective appointment blew up both prosecutions.
Zoom out: Virginia is one front in the DOJ's battle to shield the president's agenda from the courts.
- But multiple U.S. attorney appointments have been found illegal as the administration tries to sidestep Senate confirmation.
The bottom line: O'Grady urged the White House to reflect: "There are hundreds of federal judges who have disagreed with portions of the White House's direction. ... Trump appointees, Bush appointees, Obama appointees and Biden appointees — they can't all be rogue judges."
Go deeper: Reagan-era judge quits to speak out on Trump: Silence is "intolerable"
